Community, Cookies, and Rain

Multiple times a term, we open our house to students for an activity called Caring Community.  John and I have a group of six 8th grade boys in our group, and they love to be active and do active things.  Soccer and Dodge ball against other groups are always hits, but this last Friday night, we did a different activity.  We had the guys in for a night of playing Wii and making Hand Cookies.  Hand Cookies are just like they sound.  You roll out dough, place your hand on it, and then cut around it, creating a hand cookie. The boys had a blast making and decorating cookies and racing Mario Cart over and over again.  By the time it was time to go, the boys were full of cookies, poor Mario was worn out, and it was pouring rain.  After praying over the boys, we sent them back to their dorms with a few more cookies for the road, and in true missionary kid fashion, they never batted an eye at the rain.  They fun group and we enjoy having them in our home!!

John cutting out Gracie's hand cookie after he traced her hand.  Hand Cookies are a family holiday tradition that Uncle Dan Dixon shared with us.

Guys playing Wii in our living room.

Ruth decorating her hand cookie.  Since we were limited on time, we added chocolate chips and chocolate smarties before we baked the cookies.  We usually add icing and candy after the cookie is baked and cooled.

Gracie and her hand cookie.

One of the guys enjoying his cookie.  We used Aunt Shelly's recipe and they were delicious!!

Hand cookies ready to bake.

I took this picture from our kitchen.  You can see our kitchen table and the guys playing Mario Cart Wii in our living room.

Speaking of rain, the rains seem to have come, even though it is not the rainy season.  We have been having rain in the afternoons the last several days, with brief showers of maybe .05 inches, but over the last 36 hours or so, we have gotten more than an inch and a half. Rain is always considered a blessing, even when it comes out of season.

The girls trying out their new raincoats and boots!

 Please pray for our students, for the rains, and for God's blessing to remain on us and on Rift Valley Academy as we seek to serve God.

In the love of the Savior we serve,

John and Becky, Ruthie and Gracie

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!  Since we still have jet lag, we celebrated the New Year with Missouri's time! Midnight in MO was 9 am here.  It seemed strange knowing we were already in 2018 and the family we were face timing with were still in the year 2017!!  

The past few months have gone by quickly and there are moments that are still blurry to me.  At the start of the trip we quickly began planning my mother's celebration of life and ended our trip with the celebration of our Savior's birth.  Both events included time with friends and family, which was just what we needed!  We didn't get to see everyone we wanted to see and do everything we wanted to do, but we were thankful for the time we had.

We are grateful for your prayers and support!  In our earlier blog we listed several prayer requests.  On a personal note, we could still use prayers for our transition back to Kijabe, Kenya.  I have had a bad case of jet lag that has caused me to rest more in bed and on the couch.  I pray the dizzy spells will end soon.  We are slowly catching up with our sleep and the girls were only up 3-4 times each this past night.  Students start arriving on campus Tuesday and John starts teaching on Wednesday.  We still have a lot of unpacking to do and are being creative with meals since our deep freeze quit working while we were gone.  I'm thankful my friend Kate offered to pick up some grocery items for our family when she is in town today.  I was too dizzy to go with her.  We have had neighbors bring us bread and snacks, so we are thankful those things too!

We know you have been praying for our family to find a vehicle, and our prayers have been answered!  We were able to buy one from a family who left in December.  We had a lot of help from friends at RVA since we were taking care of the purchase while we were in the US.  Once we have our insurance sticker we will be able to drive it off campus.  Our first big trip will be to purchase a new deep freeze!!

Again, we wish you a Happy New Year!  Please let us know how we can be praying for you!

Love,

The Myricks

PS- Thank you for the Christmas cards sent to our Kijabe address!  We have enjoyed opening them and will hang the pictures around our house!!